Just a bill

Some bloggers out there would have you believe that the implementation of a bill to discourage party switching by MPs would be a bad thing, as they claim that we vote for people, not political parties.

Well, I understand that if I vote for a Liberal in Alberta, even if I thought s/he was not a crook, it still would become an affirmation of the ruling party's scandalous misuse of our tax funds (and that's all I have to say about that).

Do Not Pass Go
Bill C-480 was introduced as a private member's bill - which in a nutshell means it probably won't get passed. But a valiant effort none the less and it's tone was bang-on with the pulse of the nation - less than a month after Belinda crossed the floor for her own political gains in her (hopefully) brief career.

If a member of the House of Commons leaves the political party to which that member belonged when the member was elected to the House of Commons, that member shall sit in the House of Commons as an independent for a period of 35 days

Once the period of 35 days has elapsed, the member‚’s election to the House of Commons shall become void, the seat of that member shall be vacated, and a writ shall be issued for the election of a member to fill the vacancy.

The vacating member may run for the seat as the candidate for another political party or as an independent.

You voted for Tree Huggers ?
In the last federal election, the Green Party received 4.3% of the total votes.

I have no idea who the candidate was in my riding for the greens. Was it a vote wasted because they didn't get a single candidate elected ? Nay. I know I voted for them as I wanted to see what they could do with the federal funding they would receive. The party gained enough votes in the election to qualify for federal funding to parties that receive over 2% of the vote. So, they will receive $1.75 (Canadian) per vote it won in the 2004 election each year until the next general election.

The greens have policies involving the use of open source in Government that I thoroughly believe should be implemented. There were other platform issues that are important of course, but that was a biggie for me and I believed the Conservative Party candiate, now my local MP was apathetic about the subject matter.

Anyway, I'm sure if one of the current MPs, even a back-bencher, decided to become a member of the green party - many of those in his/her riding would like the chance to be able to have their say in the matter.

And a vote during a federal election carries more weight than a few terse words in a blog, doesn't it ?!